Chapter 9: The Deathless

“Who are you?” Alyssa asked gazing upon the rather malevolent looking figures not more than fifteen feet away from her. The figures remained silent with their hooded heads merely facing her. “What do you want with me?” She asked again and still no response. It seemed that the beings before her were unfriendly, but so far they hadn’t done anything provocative. As she was about to turn and leave, the cloaked figure in the middle extended his arm and a spiral of black energy charged at her, but she summoned a barrier to block it.

The figure to her left then did the same thing, and Alyssa likewise blocked it. She wasn’t certain if they were probing her abilities or attempting to draw her into attacking them, but for the moment she was going remain on defense. The cloaked figure in the middle then extended both of hands towards her and from beneath him black smoke began to billow and accumulate, and then from the smoke tendrils almost like vines with spikes began slowly moving towards her.

Alyssa discharged several blasts of burning, white light at the tendrils of smoke, but there was no effect and it seemed to only embolden the tendrils. She was becoming surrounded, and one tendril got so close to cut her leg, and that’s when she knew it was time to run. Turning on her heels, she began running in the opposite direction and at that moment more bursts of the black energy arced around her. She felt something hit her, but then her adrenaline must have kicked in because she didn’t feel any pain, just some pressure.

No matter how fast she ran, the cloaked figures weren’t that far behind her hovering quietly and slowly towards her, as were the tendrils of black smoke. Several of the energy bolts that the cloaked figures had discharged had narrowly missed her, but their aim was getting better and better with each attack. The catacombs under Thief’s Paradise, were also vast and filled with many passages that connected like a spider’s honeycomb web, and she would have tried to lose them that way, but the three figures were determined beyond anything she had faced before, and did not seem to want to let her go.

She needed to escape and quickly, but she did not have the opportunity to open a portal yet without making herself vulnerable to attack, but she knew that she would have to risk it soon or die by attrition. Hiding behind a stone pillar to catch her breath and shield herself from the incoming blasts of energy bolts, an idea suddenly occurred to her that she hadn’t thought of yet to try.

“Please let this work,” Alyssa said quietly to herself. She then turned and faced the cloaked figures and the blackened tendrils and summoned a pyre of red flames before them and the effect was instant. The tendrils seemed to wither and die, while the cloaked figures retreated backwards from it. Relieved, Alyssa summoned a portal to the city above and jumped through and just as she cleared the portal she felt something pinch her skin and looked behind to see one of the tendrils had broken through and pierced her side before being cut off once the portal closed.

Suddenly feeling far more tired and hurt than she did down in the catacombs, Alyssa attempts to blend in with the people walking through the streets, but to help her she casts a spell of illusion on herself hoping that would afford her more cover. Not more than seconds later three portals appeared with the cloaked figures hovering through the street searching for Alyssa, without the blackened tendrils though. She desperately needed to find a place to heal and gather her thoughts, so she turned down an alley and got down low behind some wooden crates and waited.

She could see the shadows of the cloaked figures pass by, but one stopped inside of the alley and slowly hovered up by the crates. Alyssa hoped her spell of illusion would work well enough, but she was ready to fight just in case it didn’t. The cloaked figure didn’t seem to breathe or make any sound whatsoever, it just gazed searchingly into the alley and then it turned and left to join the others in the hunt.

With a sigh of relief, Alyssa tried to stand but suddenly she felt this stinging pain and looked down at her side where the energy bolt had impacted on her. Her clothes were very bloody and the pain was beyond excruciating.

“Damn it,” Alyssa said angrily. This was not the time or place to be gravely wounded. Yet there was nothing she could do, and within moments her sight began to get blurry and the world was spinning around her. She tried to summon a portal to take her somewhere secure, but she didn’t have the stamina and began slumping to the ground. Before she passed out, she heard footsteps and saw a shadow, but there was nothing that she could do as she sank into unconsciousness.